We’re thrilled to pieces for the newest Scripps National
Spelling Bee star, Snigdha Nandipati. Snigdha, 14, started spelling on the way
to kindergarten every morning with her father, the Associated Press reports. He would give her words he saw on
billboards and road signs, and she would do her best to spell them correctly.
In third grade, she began spelling competitively, and the rest is history.

This year’s Scripps Bee was a record-breaking one. The
competition, which started last week, featured the youngest speller in the
Bee’s history, 6-year-old Lori Anne Madison. But it was Snigdha
who triumphed with the word “guetapens,” which is an ambush or a
trap—bonus points for including that one in your next essay!

Snigdha dreams of being a doctor, but according to her Mom,
she thinks that’ll be a cakewalk after competing in the spelling bee. For now,
though, we hope she’s relaxing and enjoying her hobbies—coin collecting and
Sherlock Holmes, natch.